Three dimensional chess game

ABSTRACT

A method for playing a two-level chess game on apparatus comprising, upper and lower spaced apart congruent traditional chess boards with traditional sets of chessmen positioned for chess play respectively on the first two rows of opposing sides of the lower chess board, where the method includes the steps of transcending and descending a playing piece from a square on one board to a congruent transfer square on the other board and optionally moving the transferred playing piece from the transfer square to a move ending square whose maximum distance from the transfer square is a selected fraction of the number of squares the playing piece would be authorized to move without having been transcended or descended, not counting the transfer square.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to improvements in the game of chessrelated to making the traditional two dimensional game into a gameplayed on two superimposed and spaced apart traditional chess boards.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The game of chess has a long history. It was about 500 years ago thatthe queen and bishop took their modern moves, thus creating the moderngame. Although the other pieces had taken on their modern movescenturies before, the queen and bishop had been weak pieces that slowedthe pace and reduced the tactics of the game. In medieval chess thequeen moved only one square diagonally, so it could reach only 32squares at a slow pace. The medieval chess bishop could leap over pieceslike a knight, and like the knight moved exactly two steps; but unlikethe knight, it moved its two steps diagonally. In the late 15th century,the queen suddenly gained a huge increase in power, as it was given itsmodern far-ranging move. The bishop trebled in power by receiving itsmodern move, thereby becoming the rough equal of the knight. Both thesechanges occurred at the same time, so that a dynamic new Renaissancechess emerged as a rival to the traditional medieval game.

Even more modern changes to the game have been suggested by recentinventors who have added a third dimension to the game by introducingadditional game boards and additional chessmen. For example, a MilitaryGame featuring upper and lower superimposed chess boards, conventionalchessmen and a set of small airplanes positioned in the squares of theupper board was the subject of the 1932 patent to Weaver, U.S. Pat. No.1,877,154. Brennan disclosed a Multiple-Board Chess Game with AdditionalChessmen in U.S. Pat. No. 3,937,471 in 1976. In the Brennan game twosets of conventional chessmen were set up on a lower board while twosets of additional chessmen were set up on an opposing upper board. U.S.Pat. No. 5,031,917 to Greene for Three Dimensional Chess Game featuredeight similar 64 square chess boards with one set of chessmen initiallyarranged in normal fashion on one side of the topmost board while theother set of chessmen was arranged in normal fashion on the lowermostboard on the side opposite to the chessmen on the top board. A secondrow of pawns was provided for each set. The pieces are moved as in aregular game of chess except that moves can be made both vertically andhorizontally with the proviso that a piece cannot be moved both fore oraft and up and down in the same move. Mardirosian's U.S. Pat. No.5,556,099, issued in 1996 discloses a three-dimensional chess game withrole-static pieces and role-altering pieces, including helicopters andplanes. U.S. Pat. No. 5,826,880 for Multi-level Chess Game withAdditional Chess Pieces, issued to Cooper in 1998, discloses amulti-level chess game with an odd-numbered plurality of chessboards andat least one pair of supplemental sets of chessmen in addition to thenormal two sets.

While all of these games are challenging, the extra pieces required fortheir play represents a significant departure from the traditional gameof chess, requiring a player to learn many additional rules andsubstantially altering the age old forms of play.

Accordingly, it is the object of the present invention to provide achess game that incorporates the airborne aspect of modern warfare intothe conventional ground based chess game, but at the same timepreserving the traditional rules of chess with the established two setsof chessmen.

A second object of the invention is to provide the game of chess with anarial feature that requires only a minimal number of additional rules tothose of the standard single plane chess game.

Other and further objects, features and advantages of the presentinvention will be apparent upon a reading of the following detaileddescription of the present invention, taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present inventive improvement to the game of chess involves a methodfor playing a two-level chess game on apparatus comprising upper andlower spaced apart congruent chess boards each having a grid of eight byeight alternating contrasting squares in files and ranks, with eachsquare defining a playing piece position. A first force and an opposingsecond force is represented in the game by two conventional sets ofchess playing pieces (chessmen), each set including a king, a queen, twobishops, two knights, two rooks and eight pawns. Each set of chessmen isinitially positioned for play in the traditional manner on the first tworows of opposing sides of the lower chess board. The inventive aspect ofthe improved chess game involves the concept of optionally transcendingone or more of the chessmen to the upper board or descending upper boardpieces to the lower board. The transcending and descending moves requirea small number of additional rules with respect to each of the chessmen,but the end game of checkmate of the opposing King remains the same,with the additional feature that check and checkmate of a Kingpositioned on one board is possible by the opponent's chessmen on theother board.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the two chess boards that comprise theplaying surfaces of the chess game of the present invention. The lowerboard is shown with chessmen set up for play in the traditional manner.The boards are shown as being interconnected, however no specific methodof interconnection is part of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is similar to FIG. 1 and further illustrating a transcending moveof a Queen from the lower to the upper board, shown by dashed lines.Possible transcending moves on the upper board are shown in solid lineswith an arrow head to terminate the move. Dashed circles indicatepossible positions of the Queen following the moves indicated by thesolid arrow lines.

FIGS. 3-6 are similar to FIG. 2 but simplified for clearer understandingby eliminating from the figures all chessmen except the ones involved inthe moves being illustrated.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring first to FIG. 1, the two-level chess game apparatus 10comprising upper and lower spaced apart chess boards 9 and 11 is shown.Each chess board has a grid of eight by eight alternating contrastingsquares 12 and 13 in files and ranks 1-8, with each square defining aposition for one of the chessmen. Files in the lower board 9 aredesignated with letters A-H. Files in the upper board 11 are designatedwith letter a-h. The squares of the upper board are preferablysuperimposed directly over corresponding squares of the lower board,that is, the squares of the upper board are congruent with therespective squares of the lower board. A first force 14 and an opposingsecond force 16 are represented in the game by two conventional sets ofchess playing pieces, each set including a king 20, a queen 22, twobishops 24, two knights 26, two rooks 28 and eight pawns 30. In thefollowing specification playing pieces of white force 14 will carry theabove stated reference numerals while those pieces of the opposing blackforce are designated with similar reference numerals for the same piece,but followed with the letter B. Chessmen representing first and secondforces are initially positioned for conventional chess play respectivelyon the first two rows of opposing sides of the lower chess board 9, asseen in FIG. 1.

The object of the improved game is to introduce a three dimensionalelement to the game of chess where the normal two sets (each set 14 and16 representing one of two opposing forces) of chessmen are moved intheir traditional manner on the ground (lower board 9) but may also maybe made to move in the air (on the upper board 11). Movement of playingpieces on both the lower and upper boards follow the traditional chessrules including the restriction that, except for the Knight, a playingpiece cannot jump over members of the same force or members of theopposing force. In modern warfare however it is expected that groundfighting elements such as infantrymen, tanks and guns will be airliftedover friendly forces on the ground, as well as the fighting elements ofthe opposing force, to go behind the line of battle. This concept iscarried out in the two-level chess game of the present invention bypermitting any of the chessmen on the lower board to transcend to theupper board where, after the transcending move, they can movetraditionally. Playing pieces on the airborne board 11 may also descendto the ground battle on the lower board 9. As with traditional chess,capture of an opponent's playing piece is made by moving an opposingpiece onto the square occupied by the piece to be captured.

The provision of transcending and descending moves requires only threeadditional rules to those already established for playing single boardchess. First, the transfer of a playing piece from one level to anothermust be made at the beginning of the move. The transfer cannot be madeat the end of the move, just as ground troops would not move across thebattle field and then be transported into the air. The second rule ismore arbitrary, but important to serve the necessary limitations onairborne moves. As part of the transfer move, either up or down, theplaying piece is restricted in its further board movement to somefraction of the number of squares permitted by the standard rules ofchess. In the preferred form of the invention that is disclosed in thefollowing examples, the fraction is one half. Third, with the exceptionof a transfer move by a Knight, the transfer square cannot be occupiedby a playing piece of the same force.

A first example is diagramed in FIG. 2. The maximum possible normalmovement of a Queen 22 is eight squares, diagonally, in file or in rank(discounting possible limitations imposed by playing pieces that may bein her chosen lane). In transcending from the lower board to the upperboard the Queen is first positioned on the transfer square T, on theupper board, that is, the square on the upper board 11 that is directlyabove, or congruent, to the one from which the Queen began her move onthe lower board 9. In the preferred embodiment, the Queen would then bepermitted to move four squares away from the transfer square in anydirection, provided that the lane of movement on the upper board isclear of playing pieces and four squares are available for movement. Thefour squares of possible movement represent one half of the Queen'smaximum normal movement capability under standard chess rules. Thetransfer square T is not counted as part of the four permitted squaresof optional additional movement.

As shown in FIG. 2, the Queen 22 moves from her home square D1 directlyup to the transfer square T on the upper board 11, then moves foursquares diagonally to the maximum move ending square h5 where the blackRook 28B is positioned. Thus, the Queen 22 captures the Rook 28B that ispositioned on square h5 of the upper board 11. While this exemplary movedemonstrates the maximum possible transfer move, the Queen couldoptionally have stopped her move short of the maximum four diagonalsquares on any one of the squares containing a dashed circle, either fortactical reasons or to capture an opponent's piece positioned on one ofthe intervening squares, such as f3 or g4. It should be noted that thetransfer move of the Queen to the upper board 11 and to square h5resulted in the Queen's passing over her own force's pawn on square E2and the white Knight 26 positioned on square E3 of the lower board 9.

Similarly, as seen in FIG. 3, a Bishop 24 transcending from D4 to d4can, but does not have to, move four diagonal squares from the transfersquare T on the upper board 11. Like the above example of the Queen'stranscending move, the transcending Bishop moves vertically to thetransfer square T on the upper board 11 and than has three possiblediagonal moves of up to four squares, provided the squares that definethese possible routes are not occupied. In FIG. 4 the Bishop 24 moves tocapture the black Rook 28B which has, in a previous move, transcended tosquare h8.

FIG. 4 illustrates the example of a transfer move of a Rook 28 fromsquare H3 on the lower board 9 to the transfer square h3 (T) on theupper board and then to square h6 on the upper board. As a part of itstranscending move, Rook 28 can optionally move a maximum of four squaresin file or in rank, provided of course that the intervening squares inthose lanes on the upper board are not occupied. If one of theintervening squares in the file of the Rook's possible move is occupiedby an opposing force piece, such as the Knight 26B on square h6, theRook may capture that piece, in which case the Rook's move terminates onthe capture square h6. As a tactical choice the Rook 28 could have movedin any of three directions and stopped on any square short of theultimate move possibilities, as shown by the solid line arrows movingaway from the transfer square T and the dashed circles in FIG. 4.Optionally, It could have moved to square h1 that is directly above itshome position H1 or it could have moved laterally in rank 3 to any oneof the positions d3, e3, f3 or g3.

On their first move, pawns 30 can ordinarily move two squares forward inthe file on which they were initially positioned, as shown in FIG. 5.Pawn 30, on its initial move may go from home square E2 to square E4.Optionally it could have stopped on square E3. If a pawn is transcendedon its first move, as shown in FIG. 5 with pawn 30 a, it may move onlyhalf of the number of squares that would have been permitted on thelower board. That is, pawn 30 a transcends to the transfer square d2 andmay then move only one square in file d to position d3 on the upperboard. If Knight 26B was position on square e3 pawn 3 a could make theone square move in a diagonally forward direction to capture the Knight26B. Similarly, if square c3 had been occupied by, for example, Rook28B, pawn 30 a could capture the Rook 28B with a forward diagonal move.If a pawn is transcended after its first move on the lower board, alsoshown in FIG. 5 with respect to pawn 30 b, then the transcending movemust end on the transfer square g3.

The King 20 may be transcended or descended at any time, for examplefrom G1 to g9, as shown in FIG. 5, but the King may not move from thetransfer square T in the transfer move. On moves following the transfermove the King may move one square in any direction, in accordance withtraditional chess rules.

Under standard chess rules a Knight moves in an L direction one or twosquares to a leg. On a transfer move the Knight still moves in an Ldirection, but only one square to a leg. As shown in FIG. 6, Knight 26transcends to square f3 and, among other possible continuing moves, theKnight could move to either square e4 or g4. The Knight is the onlypiece that can transcend or descend to an occupied transfer square,since it cannot remain on the transfer square.

After a transcending or descending move, with its above statedlimitations, the movement of the playing pieces are governed by thetraditional rules of chess. For example, if a file, rank or diagonal isclear of playing pieces on the upper board an already transcended Queenmay move any number of spaces in that lane even if the congruent spaceson the lower board are occupied with pieces representing either friendlyor opposing forces, as already referred to with respect to theillustration of FIG. 2. A transfer, either transcending or descending,cannot be accomplished if a piece belonging to the same force occupiesthe transfer square unless the transfer is made by a Knight.

Except for transcending or descending moves of a Knight, an opposingpiece occupying a transfer square may be captured on the transfer move.For example, as seen in FIG. 6, a transcending pawn 30 may capture anopposing piece 24B that is positioned on the pawn's transfer square. Ifa pawn is transcended on its initial move it could capture an opponentwho is positioned on the transfer square T or capture an opponentlocated on the square diagonally forward from the transfer square, asshown in FIG. 5. If a transcending pawn had been moved previous to thetransfer move, the pawn could only capture an opponent that waspositioned on the transfer square, as shown in FIG. 6.

Any move of a playing piece after the transfer move, either on the upperor lower board, is governed by the standard rules of chess. The King ofone force may be put in check or checkmate by the pieces of the otherforce on the same board as the one on which the King is positioned or bypieces of the opposing force positioned on the other board, or acombination of the two.

Any pawn which reaches the eighth row distant from its startingposition, whether on the upper or lower board, may be exchanged for anyplaying piece except for the King.

1. A method for playing a two-level chess game on apparatus comprising,upper and lower spaced apart congruent chess boards each having a gridof eight by eight alternating contrasting squares in files and ranks,with each square defining a playing piece position, a first force and asecond force of chess playing pieces, each including a king, a queen,two bishops, two knights, two rooks and eight pawns, and adapted to bepositioned for chess play respectively on the first two rows of opposingsides of the lower chess board, where the method includes the steps of,transcending and descending a playing piece from a square on one boardto a congruent transfer square on the other board and optionally movingthe transferred playing piece from the transfer square to a move endingsquare whose maximum distance from the transfer square is a selectedfraction of the number of squares the playing piece would be authorizedto move without having been transcended or descended, not counting thetransfer square.
 2. The method of claim 1 where the selected fraction isone half.
 3. The method of claim 1 where the transcending and descendingplaying piece possesses its full movement authority on moves subsequentto a transcending or descending move of the playing piece.
 4. The methodof claim 1 where, except for the Knight, the transcending or descendingplaying piece of the first force captures a playing piece of the secondforce which is positioned on the transfer square.
 5. The method of claim1 where the transcending or descending playing piece of the first forcecaptures a playing piece of the second force which is positioned on themove ending square.
 6. The method of claim 1 where a transcending ordescending playing piece of the first force freely passes over or underother playing pieces of the first force that are positioned on the boardfrom which the transcending or descending piece originates.
 7. Themethod of claim 1 where, on its first move, a transcending pawn of thefirst force moves one file square from the transfer square or captures aplaying piece of the second force on the transfer square or on onediagonally forward square from the transfer square.
 8. The method ofclaim 1 where the King is limited on a transcending or descending moveto the transfer square.
 9. The method of claim 1 where a transcending ordescending Knight is limited to one diagonal square from the transfersquare.
 10. The method of claim 1 where playing pieces of the firstforce put the King of the second force in check and checkmate from thesame board on which the King is positioned or from the board on whichthe King is not positioned.